Cape Town water crisis: Nothing can save the city apart from its residents

We can't rely on freak rainstorms, or instant solutions. Cape Town is at the mercy of its citizens...

It’s been an incredibly tense winter for the municipality of Cape Town, monitoring the water crisis. Inhabitants have been hoping for prolonged lashings of rain – or a ‘silver bullet’ water production solution – yet neither have happened.

We’ve been looking at the crisis in-depth recently, and we make no bones about it. Cape Town, already declared a ‘disaster zone’, is currently heading into a dry, disease-ridden abyss that’ll take years to recover from.

The City and local authorities have pleaded on their hands and needs for CPT’s biggest water guzzlers to limit their consumption. They haven’t complied, and it will eventually effect everyone in the Mother City.

The doom is certainly impending, but it isn’t officially certain. Not yet, anyway. It will require a monumental effort from the five million (or so) CPT citizens, but everyone must realise: The only thing that can save Cape Town, is Cape Town itself.

A very dry weather forecast

For the last five months, we have worried ourselves sick over the storage levels in Western Cape dams. At one point, the amount of usable water left in the dams was nearly 10% of capacity. There was respite, but only due to seasonal default.

Anyone hoping for a freak rainstorm in the next few months, you can forget it. Those setting their sights lower and wanting just a drop or two of rain will also be disappointed.

According to AccuWeather’s three-month forecast, November – January are looking completely bone dry. Not a single rainy day is predicted for Cape Town during the summer.

There will be no quick water production solution

As reported earlier in the week, Cape Town will have to wait at least 18 months before any approved desalination plants are fully operational. Temporary solutions can provide five millions of litres of water within four weeks of instillation, but it would be a mere ‘drop in the ocean’ to try and compensate for the hundreds of millions of litres the city needs to keep functioning.

Otherwise, the silence has been deafening from National Government, who have acted with very little urgency. This money was needed up to a year ago, and it seems like they are leaving the municipality to its own devices.

They have begun ‘throttling’ the water supply in certain areas. Reducing pressure limits the volume of water that exits a tap. Fines are being handed out to the city’s most flagrant water consumers. They have even taken official control of ‘water-shedding’…

Though Patricia de Lille has flip-flopped on turning the water supply off for certain times and areas, it seems that desperate times have forced desperate measures.

The only solution? It’s the people of Cape Town…

The city is in danger. It is in a lot of trouble and facing a water crisis of unprecedented proportions. However, there is still hope, according to Mayor Patricia de Lille. Getting the city to use less than 500 million litres per day WILL conserve enough water to see Cape Town through to a recovery.

Current usage levels stand at 607 million LPD. That extra 107 million-litre consumption is what’s hitting the dams hardest, as Cape Town goes 17% over its target.

No miracle is on its way to CPT. No divine intervention, freak rainstorm or time-travelling desalination plant is on the horizon. It is the people of the Mother City who must now assume the role of caregiver. Every drop counts, and if you don’t do this for yourselves, nothing will be around to help you.